


In Between

by MJosephine10



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Gen, but also this IS canon compliant, i call this what a female screenwriter might have done with the end of IX, it's what i think- i KNOW happens afterwards, major character death mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:29:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22104844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MJosephine10/pseuds/MJosephine10
Relationships: Rey & Rose Tico, Reylo
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	In Between

Rose sometimes lets Rey work with her on one of the Resistance’s fixer-upper salvage project ships even though it’s not her job anymore. Sometimes she lets her work alone, but often she works with her. They’re both mechanics—and they both understand, without speaking, the silence of the work. “Doing talking” has never been either of their fortes.

Sometimes they talk anyway.

Today Rey’s face looks a little strained and there are telltale signs of crying around her eyes.

“Anything wrong?” Rose asks casually, carefully keeping her eyes on the engine compressor she’s tinkering with.

Rey is silent for a moment, fingers prying apart the tightened vacuum-seal and scraping out the junk caught in its gears before resealing the jagged pieces together.

But soon her hands go still and she answers slowly. “Yes, a little.”

Rose inspects her work intently, wondering how far she should go. She takes the plunge.

“Do you miss him?”

Rey’s face registers surprise only for an instant, fading into a smile of understanding. Of course Rose knew. She’d suspected long before anyone else and there had been a special softness in Rose’s hug once Rey had come back from her brief visit to Tatooine that betrayed what she had guessed.

The boys and the crew suspected nothing, which was as Rey preferred it, but Rose knew.

“Sometimes.”

The word falls slowly in the stillness of the ship.

“Not always,” she adds quickly, breath catching in her throat. “Not when I’m fully connected to the force. He feels so close to me then, I can almost see him, can almost see his face, hear what he would say, which was never very much.”

She laughs suddenly.

“Mostly I just know he’s still with me.”

She puts her hands over her heart and holds them there, one on top of the other.

She stares down at her hands and then up at Rose, who is no longer pretending not to look at Rey and is meeting her gaze steadily.

“But sometimes?” Rose whispers, the words ever slightly a question and a prompting.

Tears gather in her eyes.

“Sometimes I wish he was still here with me,” she says simply.

And then she begins to cry in earnest, noiselessly and almost with impatience, as if she’s ashamed of it.

She tries to stop the tears by pressing her hands to her face, a reflex of old, but Rose beats her to it, moving forward soundlessly and gathering her into a hug.

Rey cries against her workshirt, the smell of fuel and grease that lingers on it a comfort to her.

Rose says nothing and neither does Rey.

Eventually, silence fills the little space between them again.

Rey pulls away from the hug and Rose releases her from it at the same time.

Both instinctively move back to their work, Rose starts to pack up their tools, Rey finishes tightening the final bolts.

“You know,” Rose says after a while. “I feel that way about Paige sometimes. Some part of me knows she’s there, still with me. It doesn’t make the hurt go away but it’s- it’s something.”

Rey's face softens at the words. The pain fades a little and she nods. “No one’s ever really gone.”

Rose extends a hand to Rey and pulls her to her feet.

“Can you really hear him speak to you?”

A slow smile breaks through her tear-stained face.

“I can hear him tease me sometimes. Or I can’t hear it but I can feel it deep in my soul. It’s hard to explain.”

Rey stands still, caught up in the memory of him, immovable with her hands still full of tools.

Rose takes them from her and puts them in her bag, then slings an arm around her shoulder as they move towards the door.

“What does he tease you about?”

“Oh just telling me what I’m doing wrong. He’s always wrong though.”

Rey’s voice is almost laughing now and there’s an old spark in her eyes.

“Tell me more,” Rose says. “Tell me every last detail of how wrong he is.”


End file.
